Chinese coastguard stopped a speedboat on Sunday suspected of an illegal border crossing

The Guardia
Date: 27 Aug 2020
By: Lily Kuo in Beijing and Helen Davidson

More than 10 Hong Kong residents, including an activist charged under the city’s punitive national security law, have been detained by China’s coastguard while trying to flee to Taiwan, according to reports.

China’s coastguard released a statement on Weibo saying that on Sunday at 9am, authorities in Guangdong tracked down a speedboat suspected of an illegal border crossing. The notice, posted on Wednesday evening, said more than 10 people had been arrested including two suspects surnamed Li and Deng.

Radio Free Asia and HK01 have reported that 12 young people were on the boat, headed for Taiwan, a distance of about 600km, where many democracy activists have fled after the implementation of a sweeping national security law. Citing unnamed sources, the two outlets said that activist Andy Li was among the arrested.

On Thursday afternoon Hong Kong’s police chief, Chris Tang, told media he had heard the reports but the force had had no information about the arrests, and were actively seeking information from the mainland authorities.    [FULL  STORY]